Freedomain Radio

I'm not positive that this is the right section, but either way...

So as many of you may know, Modern Warfare 2 came out this week, and about 2.6 bajillion people bought a copy. I did not. I played the Call of Duty 4 demo (the previous game in the series) and found that playing as the US military was just too off-putting to keep playing. I can enjoy a good first person shooter, but when it's steeped in current events... ugh.

Anyways, I got wind of this one particular stage of MW2, where you play as a CIA operative, who has infiltrated the ranks of some terrorist cell, and have to get close with the leader by (this is the part where you play), going with him to an airport with machine guns in tow and literally mowing down a couple hundred innocent civilians.

I couldn't help myself, and found a YouTube video. If your ability to empathize with video game characters is as high as mine, you would be wise to travel with caution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrqA0Wz45fM (9 min)

I don't think there's really anything left to say. I was already not on board with this game, but holy CRAP.

*SPOILERS BELOW*

I bought the game yesterday and have already played through the whole campaign. At first I was a little put off by the "hooah-ing" and the monologue sequences that took place during load screens by a U.S. general about the need for "sacrifice" and lamenting the fact the the people the military "helped" have now started fighting against them (this is all regarding the fictional events that took place in the first game, but are clearly referring to sentiments about the war in Iraq). The airport was definitely tough and had much more of an emotional impact on me than I thought it would. It was certainly the most somber I've ever felt while playing a video game. However, jumping to the end of the game, it is revealed that the airport shootings were actually a plot engineered by a U.S. Army general in order to start a war with Russia and get himself money, power, and prestige. So although the game is ultra-violent, it at least contains some metaphorical truth.

Excultist:

 I like RTS and TBS games. I never really liked FPSs. I don't know what to say. I wonder what it says about us that we choose to pretend to kill people in our spare time.

I think it's one thing if you're dealing with two equally-armed teams going at it, like some sort of Capture the Flag with guns or whatever. Just think of it like football, but since it's fake it can be crazier, since you don't have real life safety issues. But one team having machine guns and the other team having a 7pm flight to the afterlife is.... ugh.

No, I don't think it is. It's not the "killing people" that bothers me. It's the empathy when you are vastly overpowering an unarmed opponent. The same emotion is triggered if I'm playing Mario Kart against someone who's WAY worse than me. It gets very not fun very fast, because my empathy is triggered.

djmattb241:

No, I don't think it is. It's not the "killing people" that bothers me. It's the empathy when you are vastly overpowering an unarmed opponent. The same emotion is triggered if I'm playing Mario Kart against someone who's WAY worse than me. It gets very not fun very fast, because my empathy is triggered.

For other people it triggers only boredom and annoyance ("man, you suck at this", this is boring etc.). It's great that you have empathy.

About MW2... I love video games, but I never liked war games (and movies). And only realistic ones, I think. I like shooters, but If I'm some US soldier and have a mission to shoot other soldiers and save the country, I don't want to play it. If I'm some dwarf killing elves or some unknown dude killing zombies, it can be fun for me.

Here's a video, where Adam Sessler from G4 adresses this issue. I'm not shure if I agree with his Oscar Wilde quote, that a book cannot be moral or immoral.

By the way, are there any podcasts where Stef talks about art? EDIT: found a 3 part series about art.

Keep in mind that it is a game

If you dropped as nation the hiroshima bomb and try to talk about morality that's different

But that's not the case

Though your country most likely is involved in warfare. If you want to stop that make crusades, write letters and do homework.

If someone plays a game where killing common people is regular it may depend upon the person who is involved to judge this

I think its not a  good trend.

In doubt don't play the game or skip the scene.

Children also used to play soldiers; games are a way to get some energy done by induction of stress of some sort; cardgames, poker stresslevels etc. are comparable

Don't hurt no-one and check the effects

I had a real hard time already with CoD-MW(1) with the level when you shoot guys from a AC-130 gunship. That section was so realistic and listening to the gunship-crew's detached comments about me blowing "insurgents" into little pieces was realy uncomfortable.

MW (1) was probably the last military shooter game I will ever play. Even before I heard about the airport-level I knew I would not buy this game.

On the other hand it's interesting to see how people (game-bloggers etc.) freak-out about murder in a game "simulating" being a murderer. 

Ok, now I’v watched some footage from the level and…. Wow… Holy-crap, that stuff is tough to watch.

From the games description of the main Antagonist:

This man, Macarow, is fighting his own war and he has no rules. No boundaries. He does not flinch at torture, human trafficking or genocide.

Ah, so he is pretty much your average politician then… It goes on:

He is not loyal to a flag or a country or any set of ideals. He trades blood for money.

No ideals and blood for money - got it! Again, just like your average parasite politician.
The main problem here then, seems to be the loyalty thing…

 And than the whole airport massacre thing is justified by…. You guessed it… The greater good!

I wrote about this today here: Modern Warfare 2 jolts the player awake with a question: what kind of a world is this?

I wouldn't necessarily say that the producers of this game were immoral to produce that scene nor that those who play this are immoral. It IS just a game. However there still is something to be said about the player depending on his reactions to this and about the producers in terms of the message they wanted to convey.

In some sense it's even a good thing, that scene. Violence is typically something we hear about in the news but pay little attention to. It's not a surprise that it's such a challenge for us here to get people to see "the gun in the room". Shocking people by having them experience nearly the full extent of what it's really like could jolt some of them into some pondering, which can't be a bad thing.

Showing violence isn't always the same thing as actually promoting violence. Sometimes it can have just the opposite effect.

 Not only am I turned off by modern video gaming in general, I especially dislike these FPS games that try to model current events. I know it's a game, but because of my anarchism I know it doesn't make a difference whether you are a muslim terrorist or a soldier in the army. You are fighting using terrorism regardless.

One of my favorite games is an old game called "Syndicate". I love the game not just because of the gameplay, but because the developers of the game actually tell you the cold hard truth about the world we live in. You are essentially a member of a megacorporation(megamafia I should say) and each mission you throw 4 cybernetic slaves to do your bidding. You can brainwash civilians, you can shoot policemen, and you can fire opon other mafias. All with futuristic weapons and armor. This is the truth about the world we live in. Don't let "democracy" fool you. The people essentially beg to policians pre-selected by corporations. The truth is corporations run the world....and they have all the guns(the state).

So don't play bullshit games like MW2 that straight up lie to you. "They're terrorists. They're bad. You're a hero for fighting in the army". Play games that actually tell it like it is like Syndicate. War is just slaves creating new slaves.

I'm an RPG guy myself. I'm turned off by these violent humans vs. violent human games as well. Games killing aliens or zombies or anything subhuman, to save humans, I find I enjoy. In the right framing, I might enjoy a FPS if I could believe I was defeating an evil.

This might be an interesting topic for a podcast; you know, the psychology of violence worship through fiction.